Daoud Kuttab, a former professor at Princeton University and the founder and former director of the Institute of Modern Media at Al-Quds University in Ramallah, is a leading activist for media freedom in the Middle East.

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Daoud Kuttab highlights the penchant of authoritarian leaders in the Middle East - Egypt, Jordan, Palestine - and North Africa - Morocco, Tunisa - to impose "problematic laws" that gag journalists, activists, artists and political opponents. Defamation laws serve as a political weapon to "stifle dissent," and state authorities see no incentive "to remove the criminal element from defamation cases and thus the prospect of imprisonment." It would have been more appropriate to "prosecute them as civil cases, with those found guilty of defamation being subject to reasonable fines," like in the West. In 2007 a court in India jailed three journalists and two newspaper managers for publishing a fake and defamatory interview with a civil servant, in which he appeared to condone rape. The court pursued a case for criminal defamation, as deliberate false reporting was evident. Yet many journalists, activists and others in the Middle East and North Africa are being prosecuted for exercising their rights to free expression, or for criticising leaders and authorities for wrong doings. According to Freedom House: “criminal defamation remains one of the biggest obstacles to independent reporting.”What is problematic is blasphemy laws, under which Christians have often been the underdogs. In 2011 the Punjab Governor Salman Taseer, who sought to reform the controversial blasphemy laws in Pakistan was slain. Blasphemy is a highly controversial issue in Pakistan, and angry mobs had killed many people accused of insulting Islam. The law does not define blasphemy but stipulates that the penalty is death, and dozens of people have been extrajudicially killed in recent years. Under a law in Egypt citizens can face charges for denigrating a “heavenly religion,” inflaming "sectarian strife, or insulting Islam." Authorities have unconstrained power to "detain, prosecute, and imprison members of non-majority religious groups, especially Christians," under the pretext that their activities would put “communal harmony” at risk. Foreign publications can also be banned, if they are deemed "offensive to religion." The author says that defamation laws in the Middle East and North Africa are being used widely and intensively - a "dangerous trend," which "is fueling an increasingly powerful backlash from civil-society groups." They all launch "a public campaign for greater freedom of creativity and expression."Unfortunately the trend of using spurious lawsuits to intimidate critics and opponents, is being followed by countries across the globe, that don't respect human rights and civil liberties of their citizens. Lawmakers will hardly have the courage to "decriminalize defamation". Any change will have to come from the civil society, which is weak in countries ruled by an authoritarian regime. "With a concerted effort from all relevant parties," and "especially the media," moreover the "support of regional and international actors, it is possible." Indeed, "there is no time to waste." Free speech is of "critical importance" to "economic and social progress." Read more

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